Sunday, January 25, 2015

Another ugly pre-qualifying possibility

With “pre-event qualifying” raising its ugly head
at the Scotties and Brier this year, it’s now possible for a team to be
eliminated from play by its draw to the button.

Let me explain. We'll use the women's event as an example. At this year’s Scotties,
teams from Northwest Territories, the Yukon and Northern Ontario will play down
prior to the main event to determine the 12th and final participant
in the national championship. The first game is Thursday evening with two more
on Friday.

Then the top two teams will them move on to
play a final that is actually held at the same time as the opening draw. The
winner moves into the main competition.

However, each team plays the other two in this
pre-qualifier. Let’s say there’s a circular win-loss situation where all three
teams go 1-1. How do they decide which two move on? A pre-event draw to the
button -- it’s officially referred to as draw shot distance.

In other words, it’s possible that one team
could be eliminated by their draw.

That just adds more anguish to this entire
relegation/pre-event qualifying situation. Imagine travelling all the way to Moose Jaw, playing your
two games, losing one by say a pick or a great last shot by your opponent and
then being sent home because your draw shot was the worst of the three teams.

I checked with Warren Hansen on this, by
the way, and to the best of his knowledge, this is the first time in a CCA
competition that a team could be eliminated using the draw shot distance.